Daily Archives: May 17, 2011

When I dropped out of The Teacher’s improvisation class last year, I wasn’t his biggest fan. The intro improv class with a different teacher was fun. Moving to the next step up, with The Teacher as my instructor, was painful, vulnerable and too much of a jump for me. I dreaded going in to the class to put myself in that position. And I blamed The Teacher.

When he added me as a “favourite” on OkCupid, I recognized his photo from his Facebook profile (he’s friends with 2,502 people). I immediately wrote to him: “I know you. I took a class with you at [name of improv company]. And we’re Facebook friends (although I know you have 3 billion facebook friends because every time someone adds me as a friend, you end up as our mutual friend!)”. I also mentioned a real-life mutual friend we have and that another friend of mine (and former student) used to have a crush on him. After him finding me on Facebook, I received this answer: ” I found it. Also, found out about this whole blog thing. Very intriguing. I’m a great date, if you need someone to fill a day AND I don’t like cucumbers” (making reference to the guy who told me to f__k a cucumber). And so the idea for a date between former teacher and former student (of three classes) was born.

I wasn’t sure what to expect on our date. It actually turned out awesome. We have tons in common and chatted about theatre, life, hand gliding, using improv skills in the workplace, growing up, writing. A quick lunch turned into two and a bit hours of chatting – an hour after he had paid the bill (which was very nice of him) and we had nothing in front of us. He was quite charming. The only awkward moments were the same that are on every date (see below). So a surprisingly enjoyable time.

The awkward moments of a date

From the sixteen days of dating that I have experienced this month, I have learned that there are always three awkward moments on a date:

The first five minutes: Do you hug? Shake hands? Smile and nod? Kiss on the cheek (one of my favourite dates this month started with a kiss on the cheek)? Is it going to go well? What will you talk about first? What does your body language say? What does his?

“Can I take a photo of one of your body parts for my blog?” (I need to work of the phrasing of that!): Always an awkward moment reminding both of us I’m writing the blog and me having to get out my camera and decide on what to take a photo of.

The last five minutes: Do you hug? Shake hands? Smile and nod? Kiss? On the cheek? On the mouth? Do you mention that you’ll talk again? Do you talk about a possible second date? Do you not talk about this?

I hope by the end of this month I have some advice to give everyone about how to deal with these awkward moments (well, maybe not the 2nd one as I’m pretty sure everyone doesn’t take archival photos of their date’s body part…).

Today

Lunch with an eco-comedian who I met online and have texted and messaged back and forth so many times I feel like I already know him!